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Murder of Ever Orozco For Allegedly Blowing Kisses At Another Man Raises Fears Of "Gay Panic" Defense At Trial

September 28, 2013
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The murder of a Queens, N.Y., family man by a day laborer who told cops that the older man “blew kisses” at him has led to renewed calls to ban the so-called “gay panic” defense in trials for murder and other violent crimes.

Steven Torres, 22, repeatedly stabbed 69-year-old Ever Orozco in broad daylight on September 16 underneath the elevated tracks of the 7 train at 90th Street in Queens. A native of Colombia, Orozco was a retired mechanic who had been married to his second wife for 15 years.

While Orozco’s stepson said he had “no homosexual tendencies” and his wife declared that “he loved women,” the attack raise the fear among activists and at least one NewYork City Council member that Torres (pictured) would attempt to sway a jury with the claim that he exploded in uncontrollable rage when the older man came on to him.

Last month, the American Bar Association passed a resolution urging state and local governments, and the federal government to ban the “gay panic” defense. California passed a law to that effect in 2006 following an earlier case in which a 17-year-old transgendered woman was beaten to death by two men who, after having sex with her, learned that she used to be a man.

“Sometimes even the juries are infected with this idea that gay panic defense is OK,” council member Daniel Dromm told the online magazine Salon, “that a heterosexual man in particular needs to protect himself from the advances of a gay male.”

Dromm said he has been told that Torres’ defense lawyers do not intend to use the “gay panic” defense.

Yale law professor Dan Kahan told Salon that defenses based on the emotional response of the perpetrator to the victim are not unprecedented and change over time based on what society considers acceptable.

At one point, he said, it was not considered acceptable for a woman to kill a man who was abusing her. But the abuse defense has become more common in recent years. Similarly, it was once considered okay for a man to murder another man for having sex with his wife. But “the stock of the cuckold has kind of been falling,” he said.

Dromm says that he is working on a city council resolution to possibly call on the state legislature to ban the “gay panic” defense in New York state.